


I'm Ladybug

by Freedom_Shamrock



Series: Miraculous Acts of Kindness [15]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Dating, F/M, Family, Fluff, Game Night, Marichat, Marichat May
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 03:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11005239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freedom_Shamrock/pseuds/Freedom_Shamrock
Summary: An unexpected free evening becomes an opportunity for Dupain-Cheng family bonding time with Chat Noir.  It's the perfect opportunity to play a the new Ladybug & Chat Noir board game.





	I'm Ladybug

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Portentous-offerings](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Portentous-offerings), [Dire_M](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dire_M/gifts).



> Chronologically follows "Not Teasing" but can be read on its own.  
> I mostly wrote this yesterday, but life interfered with getting the ending down and posting it until this morning.

Chat rolled the die and moved his piece around the board, groaning dramatically when he landed on the purple square with a fuschia butterfly on it.  "Give me a card."  He held out his hand, waiting while Tom laughed at this particular predicament, which somehow hadn't gotten old.

"What's it say?" Marinette asked, both eager and anxious.

They were playing a new Ladybug and Chat Noir board game her parents had found, and the irony wasn't wasted on him.  He was also a bit unsure how he felt about people making light of Hawkmoth and akumatization.  But he wasn't going to let any of that get in the way of game night with the people who wanted him to marry their daughter (or at least joked about it with appalling regularity).

Chat pouted across the board at his girlfriend.  "I'm having a bad day.  My darling just broke up with me."  He pretended to swoon, careful not to knock over the snacks.  "Mariiiiii!" he whined.  "I'm soooo heartbroken."

Marinette scowled.  "I vote we burn that card."

"Now, now, Sweetie," her mother tempered, patting her shoulder.  "We all know  **that's** not happening anytime soon, if ever.  And it's just a game.  We're not going to destroy it."  She rolled the die and moved around the board, landing on a Good Fortune square.  "Oooh."  She drew a card from the rainbow confetti deck.  "I won a contest."  She took the negativity card in front of her and discarded it, making herself immune to Hawkmoth, for the moment.

The game involved collecting positivity cards to cancel out any negativity cards.  Landing on a Hawkmoth square forced the player to draw a negativity card.  If they had a positivity card of equal or greater value, they got to discard both.  If they couldn't discard the negativity card, they had to keep it.  Landing on one of the Akuma! squares with a negativity card in your hand meant you were the akuma for the game.  So far Marinette was the only one who had an excess of positivity cards.  Everyone else had been walking the line between safe and at risk for the first few rounds.

"So what happens when someone gets akumatized?" Marinette asked, rolling the die and moving her piece.  She landed on a square that allowed her to give someone else one of her cards.  "Ah, ah, ah."  She pointed to Chat's negativity card.  "What's the value on that?"

"Ten."  This was a dynamic he liked.  Now it was true she could have shared a negativity card.  If she'd had one.  But she didn't, and she was saving him with one of her positivity cards.

"Here, this one's perfect for you."  She thrust a card at him.  "You've been chosen to model for Gabriel Agreste's new line.  It's a dream come true."  She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Laughter barreled past his defenses.  Had he missed her getting that card?  The absurdity was too perfect.  "I knew I belonged on the Chatwalk," he said, tossing his hair.  Then he met her eyes, his smile more serious.  "We should modify that card though.  I'd rather model Marinette Dupain-Cheng's new line."

Sabine giggled.  "Oh goodness.  You two are too darling."

"You're giving me a toothache, my boy," Tom teased, smiling broadly enough to make it clear he meant the opposite.

Unfortunately on the next round Chat picked up another negativity card (you failed the exam) and landed on the Akuma! square when someone's random draw moved everyone backward two spaces.

"Well," Tom said, pulling out some more pieces from the box.  "You wanted to know what happened when someone gets akumatized."  He fanned out a small pile of violent lavender cards.  "Pick one, Chat.  This will tell us your powers."  He set an equally obnoxious die in front of him.  "You get to go on each of our turns now, as you try to hunt us down, immobilize us, or turn us into your minions."

"Where's Ladybug?" Chat mock-wailed.

"One of us will turn into ladybug, hopefully in time to win the game," Tom said, setting some other cards and dice on the board.

The second phase of the game was very different, and much faster paced than the first.  Chat used his extra turns to chase them around the board, flinging sticky webs at them  He managed to trap Tom pretty quickly.  He was closing in on Sabine when Marinette drew the Ladybug card.

"Oh, I'm Ladybug…"  Her cheeks turned adorably pink, and she faltered as if she'd said something wrong.

"Rawr," Chat said, leaning on the table.  "Give me your miraculous."

"Not today, silly kitty," she replied, absently reaching out to boop his nose while she rolled to distract him from his attack.  

It struck him as a very Ladybug reaction, not to an akuma, but to his teasing.  Apparently his girlfriend could role play and had been more attentive of Alya's videos than he'd thought.  Then it occurred to him that she might be cribbing Ladybug's moves because she thought it would make him happier.  He probably needed to make sure she knew that wasn't remotely necessary.

"You get to draw one of these every other round," her father said, handing her a black spotted red deck.  "Oooh!  Lucky charm!"  She pulled out a card.  "A toothpick?  What am I supposed to do with a toothpick?" she demanded, snatching the directions from her father.

With a couple of lucky roles Marinette managed to defeat him, with the toothpick no less.  She mimed snatching something away from him and crushing it in her hands.  God she was adorable.

"No more evil doing for you."  She took his negativity card and tucked it back into the stack.  "Bye, bye, little butterfly."  She picked up her lucky charm card and tossed it into the air.  "Miraculous Ladybug!"  It was quieter than he usually heard that triumphant cry, but the tone was spot on.  She reached out and wiggled her fingers over the board and its pieces.

"What's that?" Tom asked.

She froze, looking up at her father.  "It's my army of healing ladybugs, spreading over the city to fix all the damage."

"Oh my god, you're so cute," Chat said, the words escaping before he got to approve them.  But his filter as Chat wasn't nearly as good as his filter as Adrien, so he really needed to get used to blurting things out like that around her.

She grinned at him, then looked back at the game.  "There  **is** a Chat Noir option, right?" she asked, picking up the cards they used in response to the akuma and rifling through them.  "Where is he?"  She looked extremely irritated that she couldn't find his card.

Tom reached into the box and pulled out the Chat Noir card.  "Looking for this one, Cupcake?"

She snatched it out of her hand, critically assessing his image.  "Why wasn't he in the deck?"

"With five or fewer players, Chat Noir is removed from play," Tom explained, his voice soothing.  "It's not a slight."  He shrugged.  "You can't win the game without Ladybug, and they need to make the odds such that Ladybug can show up."

"Well Ladybug doesn't succeed without Chat, so that's a stupid rule."  She pouted.

"I think you're just a little extra sensitive about this topic," Sabine suggested.  "And you're right, Ladybug  **does** need her black cat."  Her smile looked secretive.

His girlfriend's beautiful eyes were wide as she stared at her mother.  She abruptly stood up.  "I need to walk Chat out."

Tom chuckled.  "It's much earlier than he usually has to leave," he pointed out.

"You don't need to lie for our sakes," Sabine assured her daughter, then turned her smile on Chat to include him.  "You're allowed to want some private time.  Just be safe."

Marinette let out a squawk.  "Yes.  Safe.  Thank you.  Good night."  She grabbed Chat's hand and dragged him toward her steps.

Holding back his chuckles, Chat followed her, turning to wave to her parents.  "Thanks for the lovely evening.  Dinner was wonderful.  It's always a pleasure."

**Author's Note:**

> Marichat May, Day 25, Akumatized Chat Noir  
> This is also a continuation of my [Miraculous Acts of Kindness](http://archiveofourown.org/series/714990) series proposed by [Squirrellygirlart](https://squirrellygirlart.tumblr.com/post/160090522213/hey-my-followers-miraculous-acts-of-kindness) on Tumblr. Dire (aka Portentous-Offerings) is one of my favorite artists. Her ML art is amazing, but she's not limited to just that fandom or focus. Her comics/graphic stories are beautiful. And she's a staunch and inspiring warrior against art theft. You can find her on [Tumblr](https://portentous-offerings.tumblr.com/).  
> 


End file.
